ANMELDENTeilen
Chapter 4: Unexpected Ally
Veröffentlichungsdatum:
10.04.2026 19:24:14POV: Best Friend
I’ve seen that look on Ava’s face exactly twice. The first time was when she realized she’d missed a single bonus question on her Calculus final in high school. The second time? Right now, as she stomps into our shared dorm room, her scholarship folder clutched to her chest like it’s a bulletproof vest.
"You look like you just went ten rounds with a blender," I say, not looking up from the nail polish I’m painstakingly applying. "Let me guess. The library didn't have the 1924 edition of whatever boring thing you were looking for?"
"Kai Thorne is a menace," she spits out, collapsing onto her twin bed.
I freeze, the polish brush hovering dangerously over my pinky. "Wait. Back up. You actually talked to the Campus King? The man who has a literal throne in the athlete’s lounge and a trail of broken hearts longer than the stadium bleachers?"
Ava groans into her pillow, her voice muffled but indignant. She explains the 'deal.' The mid-term essay. The way he looked at her scholarship file like it was a bargaining chip. I feel a genuine shiver go down my spine, and it’s not just the drafty dorm window. This is Crestwood University, and around here, scholarship students like Ava are supposed to be invisible. Athletes like Kai? They’re the sun, and everyone else is just hoping not to get burned by the solar flares.
"Ava, listen to me," I say, finally dropping the polish and turning to her with total seriousness. "He isn't just a bad boy with a nice jump shot. He’s the golden boy who can get away with murder because he brings in the donor money. If you do this for him, you’re on his radar. And being on Kai Thorne’s radar is like being a gazelle with a neon sign that says 'Eat Me' in front of a lion."
She sits up, her eyes flashing with that stubbornness I’ve come to love and occasionally fear. "I don’t have a choice. If he leaks the stuff in my file... if the administration thinks I’m not 'culture-fit' material..."
"So? You’re going to be his ghostwriter?" I shake my head, grabbing my phone as it buzzes with a relentless series of notifications. "Anyway, it might be too late for the 'invisible' plan. By the way, have you seen the Crestwood Confessions page in the last three minutes?"
I slide the phone onto her bed. My heart sinks as I watch her face go pale. Someone snapped a photo in the library. It’s blurry, but there’s no mistaking Ava’s frantic expression and Kai’s arrogant, leaning posture.
The caption is already at three hundred likes: Scholarship girl chasing the Star Player through the stacks? Guess some people will do anything for a passing grade—or a piece of the throne.
"They think I was... hitting on him?" Ava whispers, her voice trembling.
"It’s worse than that," I mutter, scrolling down to the comments. My eyes snag on a post from one of the basketball bench-warmers, a guy known for having a big mouth and zero filter. My stomach does a slow, heavy roll. "Ava, look at this comment from Miller. He’s talking about 'The Collection.' It’s the campus bet the guys on the team started last week."
She looks at me, confused. "A bet?"
"They’re betting on who can break the 'Ice Queen' scholarship student first," I explain, the humor completely gone from my voice. "And Kai just took the lead."
Ava's phone chimes with a text from an unknown number: Chapter one of that essay is due by midnight, Scholarship. Don't make me come find you again.
How can she survive the semester when she’s not just a student anymore, but a prize in a high-stakes game?
Aktuellstes Kapitel
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 52: Late Night Run
POV: KaiThe air on campus at 11:00 PM was crisp, biting at the exposed skin of my arms, but I welcomed the chill. My lungs burned—a familiar, grounding ache that usually helped me drown out the noise of expectations, scouts, and my father’s disappointed voice in my head.Tonight, the noise was different. It wasn’t a lecture or a play-call. It was the memory of Ava’s face in the library earlier that afternoon, the way her eyes narrowed in focus when she realized I’d actually completed the practice set she’d assigned.“You’re smarter than you let people think, Kai,” she’d said, her voice soft, lacking its usual edge of exasperation.I pushed my pace, my sneakers slapping against the pavement of the darkened quad. I was the star quarterback; I was supposed to be the guy who lived for the roar of the crowd, the guy who didn't care about "practice sets" or scholarship students with sharp tongues. But lately, the quiet moments with Ava were the only ones that felt real.I rounded the corne
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 51: Misunderstood Message
POV: AvaThe blue light of my smartphone screen felt like a physical weight against my tired eyes. It was 11:47 PM, and the silence of the library’s third floor was absolute, save for the distant hum of the HVAC system and the occasional scratch of my highlighter against a textbook. I should have been focusing on the intricate mechanisms of cellular biology, but my gaze kept drifting back to the notification bar.One unread message.It was from Kai.My heart did a strange, erratic skip-jump—a physiological reaction I was becoming increasingly frustrated with. Over the last fifty chapters of my life, Kai Archer had transitioned from a name on a jersey to a constant, chaotic presence in my orbit. We were supposed to be "tutor and student." That was the boundary. That was the safety net. But the net was fraying, and every time he looked at me with that half-smirk that didn't quite reach his guarded eyes, another thread snapped.I finally swiped the screen.Kai: Tonight was a mistake. I s
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 50: Field Confessions
POV: Kai The stadium lights were blinding, a clinical, artificial white that stripped away the shadows I usually hid in. I could hear the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of my heart, a sound louder than the dying cheers of the few scouts left in the bleachers and the distant chatter of the cleaning crew.I was supposed to be the king of this field. To everyone else, I was Kai—the star quarterback, the guy who broke tackles and hearts with the same reckless indifference. But as I stood there, sweat cooling on my skin and my jersey clinging to my shoulders like a weight I couldn’t shed, I felt like a fraud."You’re still here," a voice called out.I didn't need to turn around to know it was Ava. Her voice had this way of cutting through my bullshit, steady and calm, like the eye of a hurricane. She was standing by the sidelines, her oversized cardigan draped over her shoulders, looking like she belonged in a library, not on the turf of a Division I stadium at 11:00 PM."Just finishing up,"
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 49: Heartbeat at Midnight
POV: AvaThe silence of the university library at midnight wasn't the peaceful sanctuary I usually craved. Tonight, it felt heavy, charged with a static electricity that made the fine hairs on my arms stand on end. The central heating had hummed to a halt an hour ago, leaving the air crisp and smelling of old paper, floor wax, and the intoxicating, spicy scent of Kai’s cologne—a mix of sandalwood and something sharp, like the ozone before a storm.We were tucked away in the back of the third-floor stacks, hidden behind a fortress of heavy law journals and dust-covered encyclopedias. A single desk lamp between us threw long, flickering shadows against the mahogany shelves."Ava," Kai murmured, his voice a low vibration that seemed to bypass my ears and settle straight in my chest. "You’ve been staring at that same page for ten minutes. I don’t think the quadratic formula is that interesting."I blinked, my eyes focusing on the blurred ink of the textbook. He was right. I hadn't read a
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 48: Rival Confrontation
POV: Marcus (The Rival)The fluorescent lights of the university’s athletic wing hummed with a clinical, soul-sucking vibration that matched the agitation buzzing under Marcus’s skin. He leaned against the cool metal of the lockers, his arms crossed over his chest, tracing the jagged lines of the varsity logo on his jacket. To the rest of campus, Marcus Thorne was the golden boy—the reliable, disciplined alternative to the chaotic whirlwind that was Kai Sterling. But Marcus knew better. He knew that in a world of optics, the only thing that mattered was who held the power when the lights went out.And right now, Kai Sterling was holding onto something that didn't belong to him.Marcus checked his watch. 9:15 PM. The cleaning crew had already passed through the east corridor, and the silence of the gym was heavy, smelling of floor wax and old sweat. He had followed them. He’d watched from the shadows of the mezzanine as Kai and Ava sat huddled together in the back of the library, and t
Falling for the Bad Boy Athlete Chapter 47: Hidden Vulnerability
POV: Kai The neon sign of the twenty-four-hour diner flickered, casting a rhythmic, sickly blue light over my hands. I stared at them—the hands that could sink a three-pointer from the logo but couldn’t seem to keep my own life from fraying at the edges. It was 3:00 AM, the hour when the bravado I wore like a varsity jacket usually started to feel too heavy to carry.I checked my phone. No new messages from my father, which was both a relief and a slow-burning fuse in my gut. Every missed call from him was a silent demand for perfection I wasn’t sure I could meet anymore. To the rest of Crestwood University, I was the king of the court, the guy who broke rules and hearts with the same reckless smirk. But sitting here, in a cracked vinyl booth that smelled of burnt coffee and regret, I felt less like a king and more like a fraud.My knee throbbed—a dull, persistent reminder of the secret injury I was hiding from Coach Miller and the scouts. If they knew the extent of the tear, the sch
Das könnte dir auch gefallen
The CEO's Addiction To Love
Moonlight City953.3K AufrufeAddicted to Loving You: The Paranoid and Domineering Boss's Convicted Wife
Gu family's Little Bamboo686.5K AufrufeThe Day I Kissed An Older Man
Cher the Cherished1.0M AufrufeI Want You Back
Meminger531.2K AufrufeThe Billionaire's Little Thief
Blessarabooks 152 AufrufeOwned by the Ruthless Billionaire
Darkliana59 AufrufeThe Billionaire’s Obsession: My Ex‑Wife Became a Queen
Mimi1.3K AufrufeTHE BULLY’s CONTRACT
Pearl ink40 Aufrufe
